The directory below of books
on economic development issues such as business investment attraction and
retention is provided in association with Amazon.com as a convenient
source of books which may be of interest to our visitors. The search tool at left enables you to look
up any books, magazines, videos or DVD's directly on their website, rather than by following our
suggestions below. Direct links for review and purchase of specific items
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Book
(or media) title
The ISBN (International Standard Book
Number) may help to find a book in libraries or other sources, especially if
out of print or not readily available. It is the ASIN on Amazon.com
Our
abstract / comment
The cover image links to Amazon.com
for more information about the item, such as the comments of reviewers and
their own suggestions of related titles.
This guide to corporate expansion planning shares the
insights of a veteran leader of global business site selection consulting
for location choices by corporate executives.
Marcel was the founder of Plant
Location International in Brussels, and has assisted many leading
corporations with their expansion plans around the world.
Exporting America : Why Corporate Greed is Shipping American
Jobs Overseas
This highly respected business news anchor attracted a lot of
attention during the 2003-2004 period leading up to the US elections through
his criticism of business outsourcing in a very popular feature series,
"Exporting America".
Whether one agrees with all his
analysis and conclusions or not, it is an important contribution to the need
for a more informed debate on not only the public policy and long-term
social and economic impacts of outsourcing and globalization in general, but
also the role of corporate leaders and their business and social
responsibilities.
The basic premise is that outsourcing jobs to other
countries will ultimately be harmful to American interests despite any
short-term business cost savings.
Lou Dobbs, anchor and managing editor of CNN "Lou Dobbs
tonight", and popular feature stories on "Exporting America"
Whatever the show ratings
were, this special
feature resonated with many viewers as a very hot topic
during the US election in particular.
This book also attracted many very
thoughtful Amazon.com reviewer comments.
It's interesting that the ones which agreed with Dobbs'
basic premise and analysis seemed to give more thoughtful reviews, while
some of his critics just bashed his position or the book without much
substance. That is, frankly, consistent with what he already reported
from viewer and business editor reactions to his programs. Then again,
maybe some very smart but now unemployed people just had more time and
inclination to review his shows and the book.
Research may add to this list later. Consider looking
up associations in this field, such as the International Economic
Development Council at www.iedconline.org as well as multilateral organizations such as the
United Nations, OECD, The World Bank, etc. Refer also to our
Global Direct Investment section.
Yes, I have actually read these books, and many others. This
website isn't supposed to look like the ones they write about, such as
transaction-oriented e-commerce sites, but it will
improve with time and more resources. Most of the sites they write
about were massive investments created by teams of specialists. This
website was created by myself, with no use of consultants or other advisors.
Jakob Nielsen, Marie Tahir
2002
Bruce Donnelly
Remember,
there were a lot of dot-bombs with very clever websites. Relatively
few websites created successful businesses. Instead, successful
businesses learned how to create better websites over time to be more
responsive to their customers.
Books such as this
one offer some good insights into what they learned about what works well,
and what doesn't.
Content Critical : Gaining Competitive Advantage Through
High-Quality Web Content
Very good, concise, and non-technical overview of design
considerations for website content. This should be required reading
for most economic development professionals who develop and maintain
websites for investment promotion purposes. That includes more than
just layout and design, or navigation, such as the metadata and
classification of content and the search process which users will employ to
find the site. It also includes clear definition of the target
audience, choices about what content to include or exclude, and how to
measure the effectiveness of the website in practice.
Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton
2002
Bruce Donnelly
Search Engine Visibility
Before you get too far into design and development, it is
good to think about how people are going to find the website and the various
content pages through search engines. This is a good review of such
considerations, including pitfalls and warnings about tricks which some
other sources suggest, but which don't really work, or can actually penalize
the visibility of a site in searches (which, unintentional or not, can be
hard to reverse).
Shari Thurow
2003
Bruce Donnelly
Don't Make Me Think - A Common Sense Approach to Web
Usability
Yes, it should be fast and easy to intuitively find the
content that users are seeking to do their work better.
Many developers who design economic development websites
should worry less about all the flashy design and marketing graphics, and
more about the value of the content and an easy navigational process to find
it.
If the purposes of the website is to be a tool, it should
be an easy tool from the perspective of the intended user, such as top
executives with little patience for hype, banner ads, and other things which
disrespect their valuable time, such as many meaningless photos and
graphics.
Good graphics can be a great tool, if used with a purpose,
rather than by website developers and designers who want to prove how clever
and trendy a site they can create.
One could easily envision a sequel to this book : "Don't
Waste My Time".
Steve Krug
2000
Bruce Donnelly
Keep it simple, make it valuable, keep it timely.
Try this simple user test from the perspective of a busy executive who is
confronting the thousands of economic development websites created by area
representatives around the world, many of which can be found through our
Professionals page or links
on the Maps of the world.
Can you easily reach valuable content in 60 seconds or less over a remote
line, such as while traveling? Can the executive identify and reach
the right person that fast? Is it even possible to find out who to
call for more information, or does one have to submit a form and then wait
for somebody to call back? Is it actually clear what the area
representatives can do to help a potential investor in the area? Or is
it just a nice, glossy pitch to show how wonderful the place is?
Then, compare that experience to the many corporate
websites which executives use more often.
Note that some of the books may be out of print and unavailable for
purchase, but are still listed because copies may be found in major
libraries. There is also a separate section which highlights
magazines and professional associations
related to this market, as well as
governmental sources.
We may provide links
to other sources as
appropriate (consultants, US Government publications, United Nations, The World Bank,
etc.). For example, consultants and development agencies
may publish major surveys or research reports which are useful, but not available
through Amazon.com.
We
welcome additional suggestions. Please note that our intended
focus is to find items with enduring or timely insights which can be applied
to the needs of corporate executives, professional service providers, or
area representatives in this niche of corporate development and investment.
We are not trying to compile a "best-seller" list, or selections which are
primarily academic research (analysis without clear application to business
decisions), journalistic (superficial, hot news of the moment), or not very
objective (unless that bias is important for executives to understand).
This is intended to be a list which makes it easier to find practical
"thought leadership" publications quickly and easily for a selective range
of topics.
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practical value of our prior selections from your perspective, but we will not
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The presence of a book or other media in this list does not represent
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this is a selective list, and we may specifically include publications
which are contrary to our own views or experience. Our purpose is
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